Recent

Walk around Long Beach today and you’ll find new apartment complexes mixed with decades-old Art Deco and Spanish Renaissance-style buildings. The Hotel Royal is one of those buildings, and nothing about this hotel is typical, or conventional. And honestly, that’s what makes this exciting.

There is so much more to this part of the desert than Palm Springs, pools, and palm trees (even though I can’t complain about any of that). We woke up early to spend 1 epic day exploring the desert beyond the familiar resorts and restaurants of Palm Springs, and I was honestly speechless at how overwhelmingly beautiful it all was. Here’s exactly what we did and where we went.

For me, winter usually just means a 10-degree drop in temperature and occasional rain, and snow is just a far-off fairytale that I only get to see on social media and in movies, and I know I’m not alone! But that’s where Big Bear comes in. With only one day to spare in late January, we decided to take a day trip and see for ourselves just what makes Big Bear so magical.

We live in a social media-driven, impatient, insatiable age where the hunger to constantly be experiencing and sharing things is as much of a common denominator as it is a burden. Really though, I think that everyone in their 20s right now feels a similar insatiable hunger. A desire–a need–to go out and do everything, be everywhere, and try new things constantly.

I’m a big fan of day and weekend road trips to new places in California that I’ve never seen before, so I thought what better way to kick off the Christmas spirit early than with a day trip to one of the most Christmassy towns in the country (that happens to be less than 3 hours away)?